Catharine's Blood

An excessively long crimson scarf made of extremely light, almost see through material called arachniweave. The scarves were called 'Charron stripes' after Hillia Charron, who made the scarves in her shop in the town of Talontarrow. They were popularly worn by the aristocracy and middle-class around their neck as a fashion accessory. Over the years, the trend began to wane and the scarves became rare and collectible after Charron's death. The 'Witches of Venholm' began to adapt the scarves as a secret symbol of their membership in the coven. Instead of wearing the scarves around their necks, they began weaving the scarves into their hair.
The scarves are woven through the hair in different patterns or ties to denote the rank or sub-coven of the witch. Scarves worn by initiatives are drawn across the forehead and knotted in the back. The highest ranking witches or 'Hollow-Shine's' wear the scarf in alternating stripes woven through their hair and the ends draped over their shoulders, falling on their chests. The longer the witches hair, the shorter the ends left after weaving which is considered by the coven as a sign of ritual power and purity.
The scarves known as Charron stripes were soon called "Catharine's Blood," after Catharine Il Byron, Hallow-Shine of Venholm. Catharine had been killed by the Beast-Mother of Yarrow, a monstrous creature of unknown origin. Catharine had been the mistress of the Count of Miscathory's son and heir, Vladimir the II, and was pregnant with his male child. The Beast-Mother had been conjured by Engari the Hateful, wizard of the Count's court and sent to murder Catherine. Catharine fought against the Beast-Mother, eventually mortally wounding it with a powerful fire spell. Before the Beast-Mother died, she flung her heavy, claw-riddled hand on to the crown of her head. The claws, some nearly three inches long and all razor-sharp, dug into her scalp piercing Catharine's skull.
Catharine stood for 12 days, paralyzed and petrified, as ribbons of crimson blood dripped in thick stripes through her hair. Her unborn child was lost. Many of Beldam's people saw her in this condition, including physicians and bishops of the Most Illuminated Church. On the thirteenth day of her paralyzation, she let out a blood-curdling scream that broke windows and glassware in a one mile radius. Before she died, she spoke a curse; "Let the entire province of Miscathory be under a curse! The only child of the Beast Mother of Yarrow, the Yarrow-Yip, will terrorize the province forever more. You, the men of Miscathory, have forced me to slay the Yip's only mate. In it's anger and wrath, those beloved of the Count and his family will lose their firstborns, conceived in love, to the Yip and his insatiable hunger."
The ribbons and stripes of flowing blood through Catharine's hair were initially paid tribute by the use of beet root to dye the hair of Venholm witches in similar stripes. As the adoption and trend of "Charron stripes' became popular and then grew out of fashion, the scarves replaced the ritual dying of hair. The cult of Catharine persist to this day and her curse is echoed through the province of Miscathory whenever a firstborn child goes missing, in the light of the Yip moon.